equivalent to Java's toString()?

[Roy Smith]

In article <1087t9hc5vl833b at corp.supernews.com>,
 "Michael Geary" <Mike at DeleteThis.Geary.com> wrote:

> Gabriel Cooper wrote:
> > What is the python equivalent to java's toString()?
> >
> > When debugging I want to be able to basically be able to do this:
> >
> >     print MyObjectInstance
> >
> > or
> >     print str(MyObjectInstance)
> >
> > and have it print out formatted output along the lines of:
> >
> >     Object properties: Red=0 Yellow=0 Blue=255
> 
> Define a __str__ method in your class. It works just like toString() in Java
> and JavaScript:
> 
> >>> class MyTest( object ):
> ...     def __str__( self ):
> ...         return 'My Test!'
> ...
> >>> test = MyTest()
> >>> print test
> My Test!
> >>>
> 
> Also see __repr__ for a related method.
> 
> -Mike

Also, you might want to look at the pprint module.  It's not quite what 
you were asking for, but it's worth knowing about if you're doing this 
kind of stuff.